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Christmas in a different way

No-potato salad, tofunaise, no-carp celery in almond breadcrumbs, mince pies and children’s Champagne are all things that can make your Christmas dinner special or a bit different.

Recipe for no-potato salad

Why without potatoes? Because you might want to try a macrobiotic Christmas salad, or just try a more healthy version. Those of you who are watching their weight or who suffer from health problems can enjoy a tasty salad at the Christmas table. It doesn’t contain potatoes mainly because they aren’t the most healthy vegetables, even though many people think the opposite. For example, regular potatoes have more sugars and a higher glycaemic index than sweet potatoes. Potatoes may have a lot of vitamin C, but the energy from this vegetable isn’t defined from a macrobiotic point of view.

Tofunaise belongs in this no-potato salad as well. Yes, it’s “mayonnaise” made from tofu. You prepare it from natural tofu that you’ve cooked yourself. Again, it’s a great alternative for those of us who are lactose intolerant, for vegans and followers of macrobiotic diets. Also, you can simply buy it in health food shops. Or you can substitute the soya in tofu with vegan vegetable mayonnaise.

No-potato salad

For 4 diners you’ll need:

180g of instant polenta, or you can buy ready-made polenta from the fridge in a health food shop

460g of boiling salted water (5g of salt will do)

20g of vegetable butter to make it smoother

Let the water boil with the salt. As soon as it’s boiling, sprinkle in the polenta and stir quickly. It’s necessary to boil it for a little while even though the instructions state that it’s ready in one minute. By subjecting it to heat treatment you’ll ensure that it’s easier to digest. Be careful - it sizzles and so a pan guard will be useful.

Mix the vegetable butter into the solidifying polenta until it’s nicely fine.

Take, for example a roasting pan, line it with greaseproof paper and spread the polenta to form a layer so that after it solidifies you can cut out cubes which will imitate potatoes. It’s better to prepare the polenta beforehand so that it solidifies really well. Even on the next day it’s possible to deep-fry it for a short time and make excellent chips out of it. Dicing it will do for the salad.

Another step that’s good to take one day beforehand is preparing the tofunaise. This is so it matures nicely and the tastes combine.  

Ingredients you need for tofunaise:

200g of natural tofu

70 of water

A pinch of salt

20g of Umeboshi (plum) vinegar

50g of sunflower oil

Lemon juice

Place the tofu into boiling water for a little while so that it warms up and can be blended well. Put cubes of tofu into a high-performance blender with some of the water in which it was cooked (but not all of the water) and blend it. Add oil, salt, umeboshi vinegar and, finally, lemon juice. Let it cool off and it’s finished. 

If you added mustard and finely sliced cucumbers into cold tofunaise, you’d make “tartar” sauce.

Next, you’ll need:

100g of carrots

100g of onions

80g of pickled gherkins – you can also get sugar-free gherkins in health food shops, or use your own home-made cucumbers

90 g of beetroot – if you want the salad to be red, or 90g of kohlrabi, celery or pumpkin

100 of tofunaise

12g of wholegrain mustard

12g of Dijon mustard

2.5 g of salt

Cook the vegetables together in salted water, and then cut them into cubes of equal size. Cut the onion into small, fine cubes and fry it lightly until glossy so that it doesn’t trouble the intestines in it’s raw state. Mix it together with the sliced polenta and tofunaise. Season with salt.